Large companies in South Korea have long been cast as a central subject in the East Asian political economy, particularly in the context of the developmental state and corporatism debates. Everyday lives inside these companies, however, have rarely had light shed on them. The fact that white-collar office work in these spaces embodies the widely desired and collectively imagined upper middle class in South Korea makes this paucity that much more glaring. With rich vignettes so vivid as to feel like direct cutouts from K-dramas, Prentice attempts to fill this gap.
The book draws on the author's participatory observation of Sangdo Group (a pseudonym) during a transitional period of South Korean business. The conglomerate—just like many others at the time—was implementing the “supercorporate ideals” of “post-hierarchical forms of both interpersonal distinction and positive social interaction” (5), as the outdated top-down corporate culture was often identified as the primary culprit of...
